By Richard Thomas Rating: B Every cask strength batch is a limited edition release in its own right, and always has been. The batching may be the same, drawing on similarly aged and warehoused stock every time, but the very word “cask strength” points right to the fact that each batch will always be a …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B- A little background about Broken Barrel before we get to their Heresy Rye. This story starts with Seth Benhaim, who started his own liquor company with Infuse Spirits in 2012, at age 29. As the name implies, that company was about a line of infused vodkas. Benhaim built on that …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Ever since Andy and Charles Nelson launched Belle Meade Bourbon and began working on reviving Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery in Nashville, I have been patiently waiting the taste their properly matured, in-house whiskey. Peeks first came in their white whiskey, followed by a two year old whiskey from their first …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B A couple of months ago, I was at an event sponsored by a whiskey club and asked to give a few impromptu remarks. I decided to address my notion of Craft Whiskey 2.0, and was later asked about a feature of that concept: the gaining maturity of whiskey made by …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ It is such a fixture of Craft Whiskey 2.0 that I get tired of saying it, only to find that saying it is necessary: whiskey made by small distillers is now properly mature more often than not. Many of the bottles coming out of Pittsburgh’s Wigle Distillery are a perfect …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Seeing as how I was down in the Brooklyn Navy Yard just a few days ago, enjoyed a warm cocktail on a frigid, pre-Snowpocalypse 2022 day, it seems like as good a time as any to address Kings County Distillery’s Empire Rye. It’s a good example of one of the …
By Douglas Faser Rating: B+ Bib & Tucker is a 19th Century term used for one’s best clothes. In modern times, this language is not really used, but Deutsch Family Spirits has brought it back as the name of their small batch bourbon line. Bib & Tucker is a sourced, six year old Tennessee-made bourbon. …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Newport’s New Riff Distilling is riding more waves of novelty than just those names. The distillery is part of a new class of medium-sized distilleries in Kentucky, and is also part of the group that followed Old Pogue in bringing bourbon-making back to Northern Kentucky. New Riff has also become …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ I first wrote up Compass Box’s Great King Street Artist’s Blend in Spring 2012, and we are fast coming upon the 10th anniversary. Much has changed in that decade, not just for Compass Box, but for this specific brand. Created as the standard bearer for Compass Box’s line of artfully …
By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Jeptha Creed occupied a special spot for me for a few reasons before I got hold of their new bonded bourbon. They were the first new distillery I visited upon returning to the United States from my long sojourn abroad; they were among the first (and are engaged in a …
